Blackhawks

Monday starts things off in no-man's-land, even for Canada, Edmonton, followed by Tuesday's doubleheader at 3 pm and 7 pm against Winnipeg then Vancouver. From there, they travel a total of 21,000 miles in route to five games over the next four days, including a few morning tilts.

"We love what the Blackhawks are doing," said former running back Larry Csonka, who is a spokesman for the only Super Bowl-era team to finish a full season undefeated. "We will recognize their accomplishment with one rule--we are not going to count any more games against Columbus."

Taking a page from movie legend John Wayne -- who was born Marion Morrison -- Hawks winger Marian Hossa recently announced he is also changing his name to the more "badass" John Wayne.

After an exciting overtime victory over the Stars improved their record to 4-0-0 Thursday night -- which marks the team's best start since the 1972-1973 season -- the Blackhawks are now projected by most analysts to finish the season with an undefeated 48-0-0 record. While doing so, they will also make sure that no child has to go to bed hungry ever again.

On a Facebook account linked to Diana Olczyk, this post was discovered during the second period of Saturday's Philadelphia-Pittsburgh game: "One thing Eddie didn't miss from the lockout was hearing that someone 'shuffleboarded' a puck out of the zone. Who does that anyway?"

"Let's face it," Bowman said. "Nobody expected this coming out of the lockout. We jump out to a 3-0 start, now I've got the other general managers mad at me and Gary [Bettman] calling me to remind me that the NFL is so popular because of parity and all that. It's a headache."

Suspicions were confirmed during a recent game, when Hossa scurried over a glass wall and into the penalty box without opening the door.